THE IMPACT OF MULTIMEDIA ON AFFECTIVE FACTORS IN A GREEK YOUNG LEARNERS CONTEXT
ΠΑΡΘΕΝΑ ΠΑΠΑΔΟΠΟΥΛΟΥ
The piece of work that follows describes issues related to the teaching ofreading in a young learners context through a conventional and a multimedia storybasedreading lesson. Its aim is to describe the differences and similarities betweenthe two teaching modes in terms of reading skills and performance and the effect ofeach instruction mode on learners intrinsic motivation, reading attitudes and selfconfidencefrom a qualitative perspective. To this end, twenty young learnersstudying English at a post-elementary level in a private school of foreign languagesvoluntarily participated in the study. The in-focus learners were divided in two groupsand each group attended two sessions of conventional and multimedia story-basedreading lessons respectively. The instrumental tools used in the research included twopre-questionnaires as well as an observation, a post-questionnaire and miniinterviews.The main finding of the survey was that the multimedia story-based lessonhad a strong impact on children s motivation, reading attitudes and self-confidence.The study concludes with the argument that multimedia stories are a powerfulinstructional tool that sustains children s motivation and promotes positive attitudestowards reading with a view to improving reading skills and enhancing readingcomprehension.
